UK Easter - No longer a movable feast?

Hi All,

I was reading a post about taking kids out of school, which reminded me: Is it true that the UK Government has "fixed" Easter in April?

Someone told me that schools will not be getting a holiday at "Actual" Easter i.e. the week leading up to Good Friday and the week following Easter Sunday ... Although I assume that the Public Holidays will still be observed, or not :shock: and that a new “Spring Break” has been introduced. Does this mean that Easter Ski Holidays are more-or-less a thing of the past?

Can anyone shed any light on this?

Cheers

Jan

As far as I know, this was only last year when Easter fell so early that it made better sense to have the 'easter' holidays later (obviously Good Friday and Easter Monday the kids were still off school).

My nieces certainly didnt complain, as they got the full 3 weeks off (they live in Manchester where the holidays are slightly different) in April, as well as the 'real Easter' off I dont think this is an issue this year though!

There is talk among some of my teacher friends that they are going to restructure the school terms in line with what Manchester do (ie 3 weeks off at Easter, 2 weeks off at May half term, and only 4 weeks off for the summer...IIRC!). My brother is not keen on everyone changing though as they tend to get cheaper deals going on holiday in what for the rest of the country is term-time...if every LEA changed the holidays you can bet the TO's would hike the prices for the 'new' school holidays!!

Hi Jan

Like geordiski says it was a bit different last year. there has been talke for a long time about the kids holidays. there has even been mention in our area of splitting the school holidays so that they dont get any longer than 2 weeks off at a time. so May week would be 2 weeks, october would be 2 weeks, summer holidays would be 2 weeks, not sure how they would do the rest. certainly to my knowledge there are no plans to change, I think it is more rumour and wishful thinking by most people who are jealous of teachers holidays. I know next year that in April they are off from 3rd to 20th and in 2010 they are off from 1st to 19th April. You can get this kind of information from here
http://www.durham.gov.uk/durhamcc/usp.nsf/pws/School+Holidays+-+School+Holidays
hope that helps
Karen

In hertfordshire last year our easter holidays started on good friday. However, I'm a stone's throw from essex and they had the bank holiday weekend, went back to school on the tuesday and then had their two week holiday a couple of weeks later. It depends on the LEA.

Personally, I'd love to see different parts of the country have different holidays [until my children are out of school that is :wink:]

The Easter weekend will still be movable but like last year depending on when it falls the school holidays may or may not include the Easter weekend.

Last year we got the Easter weekend off, back in school for two weeks then a two week holiday which I thought was great until I realised that our summer term had been extended by two days and we got 5 and a bit weeks instead of 6!!! (Can't wait to read all the insults after that comment!)

Next year our Easter holidays have the Easter Weekend in them. In 2010 we break up on the Thursday just before the Easter Bank Holiday on the 5th April.

I don't know what will happen in 2011 - YET!!

PSC

Thanks everyone, so it looks like "Easter" has been decoupled from the Spring Break after all ... Guess that means the end of an Easter Rush in those years when Easter falls early ... Unless, like in the other thread, parents take their kids out of school during term time ;)

Jan

We got a letter from school home yesterday for Sefton are in Merseyside. They are piloting fixed holidays of which Easter is one - they will call it a spring holiday and it will always be the 1st 2 weeks of April. Should Easter fall outside these dates then the children also get the two bank holidays in addition!

Seems like a good idea?